San Jose antitrust case against MLB at crucial stage

For more than four years, San Jose's once-promising bid to lure the Oakland A's to Silicon Valley has crashed as regularly as the team's recent quests for a World Series title.

But as the A's make a furious push to change their pennant fortunes this fall, rolling the dice in recent weeks with blockbuster trades, San Jose city leaders are likewise looking for outside help to force Major League Baseball to allow the team to move to the South Bay.

On Tuesday, San Jose resumes its high-stakes legal game against MLB, pressing its claim in the nation's largest federal appeals court that the league's refusal to allow the A's to move south violates federal antitrust laws.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in a case that challenges baseball's nearly century-old exemption from antitrust laws -- and while many legal experts consider San Jose's odds about as good as the woeful Chicago Cubs winning a championship, they also say a ruling against the league could force a settlement in favor of an A's move to the valley.

The San Francisco Giants have blocked the move, asserting they own the territorial rights to the South Bay. That has paralyzed MLB ownership.

"I suspect that if MLB were to lose at the 9th Circuit, (it) will pressure San Francisco to allow the A's to relocate to San Jose," said Nathaniel Grow, a University of Georgia sports business expert.

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The legal challenge is unfolding while the A's explore other options, particularly in Oakland, where the team just signed a 10-year lease extension at aging O.Co Coliseum. The lease has an opt-out clause, leaving the door cracked for A's owner Lew Wolff, who has favored moving the team to a downtown San Jose ballpark.

Wolff, who said he was﻿ not aware the court case had reached an appeals court, insisted again last week that he does not favor litigation to solve the issue, adding, "I'm not really high on lawyers."

"We're going to look closely at Oakland now because of the lease commitment, and San Jose when it is available to look at," Wolff added.

San Jose city leaders, meanwhile, remain confident the A's will wind up downtown, where the A's have an option to buy land for a ballpark under a deal between the city and team. The lawsuit maintains that MLB has interfered with that business arrangement by blocking the A's move to San Jose, damaging the city's economic interests.

"You just have to take the long view and stay in it," said Mayor Chuck Reed. "Obviously, the lawsuit may be the key to motivating (MLB) sooner rather than later."

Thus far, San Jose's legal arguments have faltered, in large part because the U.S. Supreme Court through the decades has upheld baseball's antitrust exemption.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte dismissed the city's antitrust case last year, concluding that he was bound by legal precedent and that it was up to the higher courts to do away with the league's exemption. But Whyte sent a message to the 9th Circuit, calling the antitrust exemption an "aberration" that "makes little sense given ... the business of baseball today."

San Jose's lawyers have pounced on the language, calling the exemption a "product of a bygone era."

"This case is everything in terms of where Major League Baseball is going," said Joseph Cotchett, the city's lead attorney. "The time has come for them to abide by the law like everyone else."

John Keker, a lawyer for MLB, declined to comment. But in court papers, MLB argues that San Jose has no legal right to a team, portraying its deal with the A's as tenuous.

"For nearly a century, the Supreme Court has consistently declined invitations to narrow or eliminate the antitrust exemption for the business of baseball," MLB told the 9th Circuit.

The three-member 9th Circuit panel that will hear the case presumably does not include Bay Area baseball fans: it is made up of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, a Reagan appointee from Pasadena; Judge Barry Silverman, an Arizona-based Clinton appointee; and Richard Clifton, an appointee of George W. Bush from Hawaii.

The 9th Circuit itself upheld baseball's antitrust exemption in a 1974 ruling involving a challenge from minor-league baseball teams in the Northwest over MLB expansion in Seattle and San Diego.

"San Jose's odds of prevailing at the 9th Circuit are slim, I'd say under 10 percent," Grow said. "If the case does reach the Supreme Court, the court's approach will depend a great deal on the outcome in the 9th Circuit."

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz